Menu

Microsoft’s recent announcement that much of .Net will become open source and that it will support both Linux and Mac OS X is fantastic news. Along with the additional, full-featured, no-cost versions of its developer tools the company is introducing (though they remain proprietary), this represents a large, positive step in Microsoft’s open source journey.

Simon’s spoken and written a number of times about the seven stages of a corporation’s journey into open source and used Microsoft as an illustration of his ideas. This new development puts the company very clearly at the fifth stage of Simon’s scale, which is impressive, but begs the questions “what’s next?”, “how does Microsoft’s open source journey continue to develop from here?”

The answer lies in a holistic view, in which respect for open source extends to every business unit of this famously divided company. While those business units that don’t yet respect open source continue to use tactics such as patent attacks on Linux community members and covert political moves to undermine the Open Document Format, further progress will be slow in coming. Microsoft’s gradual acceptance of the inevitability of open source however, seems to be in full swing. For more detail, check out Simon’s InfoWorld article.

Related

Post navigation

Tip Jars!

We’re an independent team & rely on your support & donations – thanks!

Can We Help?

Meshed Insights can help you with your open source strategy. Contact us for support with community, governance, licensing, branding or any other aspect of your open source strategy. We can also support you on digital rights issues. We offer research reports and white papers for your management and Board from experienced advisors, as well as on-site consulting and longer term engagements such as non-executive directorships.Contact us now.